LETTER: Don't Teaching Jobs Count?

June 22, 2013

Thursday's Courant reports that gun manufacturer PTR will relocate to South Carolina [June 20, Page 1, "Gun Maker Picks S.C."]. The story highlights the loss of jobs. But why is this a story of economic loss, while a greater loss is ignored?

Recently, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro announced a grant for Teach for America to expand its Connecticut corps to more than 200. Uncredentialed TFA instructors, often with no classroom experience, destabilize schools through teacher turnover and devastate communities by taking away meaningful jobs.

Having protested the introduction of TFA into my children's schools in Windham; having seen one novice TFA teacher pack up after 10 days; and having to worry that children's confidential information is available to a politically connected organization that rakes in millions of dollars that should go to needy districts, I am deeply confused.

Why does Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has supported the TFA initiative, think so little of the stability and well-being of poor communities that their jobs can be outsourced to little-trained TFA personnel? Instead of enhancing and preserving jobs that build and maintain local communities, Malloy and Ms. DeLauro prefer to erode a civic institution and to outsource teachers.